State of Texas vs. David Wayne McKay

 On March 3, 1982, three months after being licensed to practice law, Sasso agreed to meet a potential client, David Wayne McKay, after hours, at McKay’s request, at Sasso’s office at 500 North Griffin at Ross, in downtown Dallas. Mr. McKay was part of a group allegedly involved in cocaine and methamphetamine trafficking, mostly in East Texas. Sasso had already had some success in knocking out narcotics search warrants with the group. Mr. McKay needed a vehicle, did not have a vehicle, and had walked from the Greyhound Bus Station. Sasso had a vehicle, some cash, and his “pimp” watch, and was alone at the office, late at night. Shortly after McKay arrived and talked his way into the office, Sasso became uneasy and alarmed at McKay’s demeanor and behavior. Sasso felt that something was inconsistent about McKay’s reason for being there and his explanation about something he said had happened to him at the Greyhound Bus Station. McKay did not know that Sasso had worked four summers and four Christmas breaks at the Greyhound Bus Station and knew their procedures well. Sasso was unarmed (at that time). As McKay became increasingly agitated and confrontational, Sasso was somehow able to talk and walk McKay out of his office and building. The next night, March 4, 1982, McKay, still in need of a car and money, and in a narcotics-induced psychosis, abducted Bobby Hill from the parking lot of Rox-Z Club, then on the northeast corner of Greenville Avenue and Pineland. Hill had driven his father’s 1980 tan over navy blue Chrysler Cordoba to the club to pick up his girlfriend, who had lost her keys to her car at the club. McKay took Mr. Hill to a vacant field in Las Colinas, tied his hands behind his back, and inflicted 6 gunshots to the back of his head.

On March 5, Sasso visited a member of the group, Kevin Long, on an unrelated felony drug matter in the University Park jail. Several hours later, McKay showed up to attempt to visit Long, his friend. Police became suspicious and took down the license plate of the vehicle McKay was then driving, which turned out to be the vehicle of the deceased. On March 7, 1982, McKay was arrested in the same Rox-Z’s parking lot, heavily armed, driving the same vehicle, presumably looking for another victim. He was taken to the Irving City Jail on the charge of Capital Murder, Aggravated Kidnapping, and Aggravated Robbery. McKay was represented at trial by veteran and highly competent trial lawyers, Dick Harrison and Mike Nelson, but was sentenced to death. He is no longer on death row. The main case is reported in 707 S.W.2nd 23, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (en banc) 1985. Sasso believes to this day that the Hand of God somehow intervened on March 3, 1982, and his life was spared. He very easily could have been a homicide victim that night.